H.S. Football Player: Apple Watch Saved My Life

A high school football player from Massachusetts has credited the Apple Watch with saving his life.

Paul Houle, a 17-year-old senior who plays nose tackle on the Tabor Academy football team in Marion, told local CBS affiliate WBZ-TV that he he began feeling pain in his back and chest after a recent team practice.

“My Apple Watch, which I bought three days earlier, I tested my heart rate on it,” Houle told CBS. “It was about 145 for about two hours after the practice had ended.”

Houle reportedly shared his concerns with his trainer, who confirmed the teen’s rocketing heart rate and immediately rushed him to the local hospital. Once there, doctors diagnosed Houle with rhabdomyolysis.

“I was so dehydrated that my muscles started to actually break down and release a protein that is sort of toxic into my blood stream which caused my heart, my liver and my kidneys all to shut down,” the teen told CBS.

Houle will reportedly be forced to miss a portion of his school’s upcoming football season while he recovers, but the outcome could have been tragically different.

“I’m grateful to Apple. I’m grateful to the school because the trainers and the nurses, everybody really just jumped on it,” Houle’s father, Dr. Paul Houle, told the outlet.

Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly called Houle and offered him a free iPhone and an internship at the company next summer.

This is not the first time a teenager has credited an Apple product with being a literal life-saver: in August, 18-year-old Tennesseean Sam Ray directed Siri, the voice-activated assistant on the company’s iPhone, to dial 911 after he was pinned underneath his truck and could not reach the phone.